Intelligently directing thought, speech and action means to free our thinking, our communication and our action from strong negative emotions. When we act without anger, pride, the tendency to deceive others and greed, we absorb no further attachment (karma) of this kind into our interactive karmic field.

To consciously direct our activities does not mean to perform purely repetitive activities as spiritual leaders often request (the repetition of mantras, 'routine' prayers or 'ritual' performances whose purpose and mechanism we do not understand etc). To progress towards the ultimate freedom always and only means to consciously advance to ever superior levels of understanding and experience. Mechanical and thoughtlessly performed actions may have a calming effect on our psyche because they bestow the feeling that we are 'doing something' for our spiritual advancement, but these types of actions will never cause real inner growth.

The habitual repetition of such mechanical activities merely indicates that we have not yet understood that freedom from all karmic processes will only happen when we direct the best of our ability and energy intelligently towards this goal. Without this fundamental insight, the performance of such repetitive actions will produce only arbitrary effects that are unable to sustain any permanent and stable progress towards freedom from all karmic influences.